Summer Camp
by Pocket Full of Pens
Summary: AU- Max and Nudge never really fit in with their weird personalities. Their families decide to send them to summer camp, to benefit the girls and themselves. At camp the girls meet new friends that are just as quirky as they are. (The flock) Not only do friendships surface, mysteries do as well. Couples- Max/Fang, Iggy/Nudge
1. What I Don't Get

**Disclaimer- I am not James Patterson, everybody! I don't know what I'd do if I were him. Probably make Gazzy, Nudge and Iggy bigger characters because I like them so much. Anyway, I only own the plot because my odd subconscious helped me make it. And I don't own Taylor Swift, either. **

**A/N: Hey! So, I've been really into Maximum Ride fanfics lately, so into them that I had a dream about Max, Nudge and some others at a summer camp. I've put it together so that its a substantial story. This chapter's a bit slow but that is how the dream was. I've put more effort into this than any other story so I hope you like it!**

Max P.O.V.

My mom drives the car up the side of the mountain. A light rain hits the windshield of our car, making me feel even less enthusiastic about going to a summer camp. It took some time but Mom finally convinced me to go when she told me that Nudge was going, too. She's my best friend in the whole world which is pretty pathetic considering that at fourteen, I'm two whole years older than her.

What I don't get is why Mom spent so much time trying to get me to camp but spent two seconds on my sister Ella who refused. Or rather, turned down politely. It's probably because Ella's the nice, obedient daughter while I'm sarcastic with a distaste for humans in general. Or she thinks I'm lazy which I certainly don't agree with. I could kill you with my bare hands, I just choose not to. You're welcome.

I sit shotgun, staring out the window. Nudge is sprawled all the way across the back seat listening to old Taylor Swift songs on her iPod. I know that for a fact because she always announces the title, length and album the song's from when a new one comes on. She had been chattering about who-knows-what but she gave up half and hour ago when she realized that nobody was listening.

Nudge is a nickname, of corse. It replaces the name Monique which is allegedly a mouthful. Nudge is a motormouth so I don't get where long names start to create problems in Nudge-land. I also don't get why we call her Nudge of all things. Maybe because her talkativeness makes her sound pushy.

"Look over there," Mom says, breaking us out of our daze. She points to a lake with oddly clear water during the mini-storm. "That's the lake we have a picture of in our living room."

Nudge looks up from her iPod and gives my mom a questioning glance. "I've always wondered, why do you have a picture of a random lake in your house? Does it have meaning or do you just think it looks pretty?" She says rather quickly. Nudge has a knack for saying a whole darn lot in a single breath.

"I found the picture at a yard sale so, I just think it's pretty," Mom replies. Oddly enough, I'd never asked about the picture myself and I'd been looking at it since I was, like, five. Not that I'm not a curious person, I just don't like stupid questions that could very well put someone into a sentimental rant about something's beauty.

"How's the water so blue?" Nudge asks. I feel a rant coming on. "I mean, it's incredibly beautiful but I don't get it. It's raining! And isn't only the ocean supposed to look like that? Maybe-"

"Nudge!" I whine. "You're doing it again." When Nudge gets ranty it's best to stop her while you've got the chance. She could go on for hours and hours and she only has to breathe every five sentences or so. We call it Nudging out. Like I said, I'm pathetic being friends with a ranty twelve-year-old. Being friends with only a ranty twelve-year-old, as in I didn't have any other friends. Being complete weirdos, we have to tolerate each other's quirks.

"Maximum, be polite!" My mom scolds. As for my name, Maximum, I told you I had a lot of quirks. Another thing I don't get about me and Ella. How does she get a normal, human name while I get a superhero/pegasus name? Not that I don't like it, I love it. I just don't get it. I don't get a lot of things, obviously.

"Mom, Nudge and I do this all the time!" I throw back. "She rants, I complain and we just continue on like that until we get weird looks from everyone and anyone." After that, Mom stops trying to make me work on my manners or Nudge be quiet. She and Nudge's family must be psyched about getting a week and a half without the passive-aggressive teen and the talkative motormouth. Yes, talkative motormouth, as in she talks WAY too much.

"Tunnel dead ahead!" Nudge cries in a pirate voice. "Hold yer breath, make a wish, cry when it don't come true!"

I actually do hold my breath while we go through the tunnel. I need a miracle to get through ten and a half days with strangers who don't know how to deal with me; love me and deal with it or forget I exists. Mature Nudge rolls her window down and screams into the tunnel. Technically, she's more likable than me so she won't have as many problems as me.

When we get out of the tunnel I let my breath out and whisper my wish, "I just want something new, nice to come of this. Please don't Nudge's make a wish, cry when it fails speech come true." I feel really silly wishing on a tunnel but it's all I can think of. Maybe something good will come of this.

After that Nudge returns to ranting. "You know, every now and then I have sudden flashes of brilliance. Like, I figured out the roots for the word dystopian. It's the opposite of utopian, so like an imperfect society! I love ice cream. Do they have that at camp? But you know what I hate? Mosquitoes. Ick! They attack me all summer and it really stinks. Maybe-"

This time my mom cuts her off. "Nudge sweetie, maybe you want to go back to listening to music."

She reluctantly pulls out her iPod and returns to listening to the music so my mom won't drop her off and make her walk the rest of the way. The bad part of the music is that Nudge knows all of the words so she just has to sing along. It's ok until she gets to "Love Story" the most cliché Taylor Swift song I can think of. I sigh and yank out the fashion magazine I keep in the glove compartment just in case. I hand it to Nudge, yank her iPod out of her hands and say, "Read, be quiet."

"But it's not current!" She whines. "Why should I have to read about old trends?"

"Because if you don't I'll have to go back and drop you in the lake," I say through clenched teeth. She opens the magazine and the smell of perfume samples fills the air around her. I try not to gag. Suddenly I really want to get to camp.

**A/N: Like it? Before you point it out, Nudge is older in my story because she liked Iggy in my dream. I've made some tweaks here and there so that the story makes a bit more sense. Like, Max is a combination of me and my best friend. Oh, sorry. Nudged out. Anyway, thanks for reading!**


	2. Nick, Isn't It?

**A/N: Oh, my gosh, I'm so happy! I want to thank everybody that's favorited, reviewed and added Summer Camp to their alerts! Seriously, it was only the first chapter! So thank you, thank you to everyone! **

Max P.O.V.

The car pulls up the driveway to the camp and I climb out. I take in a big breath of fresh, mountain air and let it out slowly. It stopped raining ten minuets ago and since the rain had been light there aren't any puddles. I survey my surroundings, an amphitheater to my right, a soccer field to my left, a path leading down to the cabins in front of me and mountains all around. It's beautiful.

Nudge climbs out of the car and, with help from my mom, yanks our suitcases out of the trunk. Mine's a simple black bag while Nudge insisted on bringing one that was hot pink. As we get our bags out a woman with a camp t-shirt and a giant smile comes up to us. I'm guessing she's a counselor because she's way too old to be a camper.

"Hi," she says. "My name is Anne! You must be the new campers!" Her smile never fades.

I nod slowly. "Are we the only new campers this year?" I ask and she nods. "We've been losing campers lately. We've only got around seventy now. Why don't I show you to your cabin?"

Nudge and I turn to follow Anne but Mom stops us. She holds out her hand and Nudge sighs, handing Mom her iPod and earbuds. "Thank you," Mom says and plants a kiss on each of our heads. "Good luck."

Nudge and I follow Anne down a gravel path to our cabin. I glance at Nudge who looks relatively happy. When we reach a cabin that's painted a pale shade of pink, Anne stops and says, "Here we are!" She opens the door and ushers us in. I look around. The lighting's not too good but there are two bunk beds and a door in the back wall leading to the bathroom. Bookshelves line the walls that I assume are for our belongings.

Anne smiles again and says, "Just settle in for now. Be at the mess hall in twenty minuets." She hands Nudge a map and walks out.

I shove my suitcase under one of the beds and leave the cabin. I really don't want to bother with it now, I'd rather look around. Nudge follows suit. As we get outside I see two boys that look around my age talking nearby.

They are both tall, the taller one with strawberry blonde hair and the other, the one with pitch black hair, wears all black despite the heat. He looks so familiar but I can't put my finger on it. I think on it but I just can't name where I've seen him before. As I try to remember he notices me staring at him. I look away quickly but he's already headed my way. Right as he's about to introduce himself I remember.

The dark hair and black clothes. I used to be best friends with this boy when I was seven. We were really close, closer than Nudge and I are now. We shared a common trait- we were weird. I was sarcastic. He wore all black but yelled when people tried to label him as "goth." We had weird nicknames, too. Everyone knew me as Max and him as...

"Fang!" I announce, gaining weird looks from everyone else. He shakes his head. Then I remember, "No, wait, your real name's Nick, isn't it? Nick Black? Is that what you go by now?" He nods with a hint of a smile. Still very quiet, I can see. Or rather, hear.

"Wait," he says finally, "you're Max Ride, aren't you?"

"Yeah!" I say. I feel like hugging him but that would probably be weird considering we haven't seen each other in seven years. He had moved away, leaving me to fend for myself for a few years until I met Nudge.

We stand in an awkward silence until Nick's friend pipes up, "Hi, I'm James Griffiths. You can call me Iggy, though. Everybody does."

"I'm Monique Davis," Nudge says rather enthusiastically. "But everybody calls me Nudge! It's really nice to meet you guys. Max has told me a bit about you, Fa- I mean, Nick. Maybe-"

I cut her off and give the boys an apologetic look. "Sorry, she gets really talkative. Just tell me if she gets too Nudgie." Nick looks grateful but Iggy almost seemed like he liked her rambling.

A counselor walks up to us and says, "Could you four go grab a cooler that's in a shed down that path?" He points it out on Nudge's map and we nod. "Just bring it to the mass hall when you've found it," he says and walks away.

Nick, Iggy and I start down the path but Nudge stops us. "Wait," she calls, "lemme get my tennis racket!" She rushes into the cabin and returns with a small, black drawstring backpack. The head of a tennis racket sticks up out of the top. Noting our confusion she says happily, "It's a safety measure! You never know!"

Nudge P.O.V.

The four of us walk along the dirt path. It has a bank that rises up on one side and one that drops off on the other. Max walks in the front of the pack while Fa- Sorry! I mean, Nick trails behind. Iggy and I walk side by side and we end up starting a conversation.

"So you seriously don't have any friends that are girls?" I ask him. I have no idea how we got on this topic but it's as good a conversation as any. I learn that Iggy and Nick are both fourteen like Max but Iggy's actually six months younger than her. He and Nick know each other because they've been going to this camp together for a few years now.

"I mean, I've had girlfriends before," he replies, "but never a friend that's a girl." Something about the thought of him having a girlfriend made my stomach hurt a little but I assume it's like when a book character ends up with someone you don't think they should be with- its unexpected. It shouldn't bother me, I barely know him and he's a year and a half older than me anyway.

"Well," I say, trying to keep my voice steady, "now we're friends so you do have a friend that's a girl!"

"Thank you, Nudge, for being my first female friend!" Iggy says enthusiastically. It makes me smile, having a special place with him even if it's ridiculous.

I look away from Iggy's smiling face and see a wolf bounding toward Max. "Max!" I scream. As wolf jumps at her, I yank my tennis racket out of my backpack and knock the wolf away with it. It turns on me and for a second I imagine it with a badminton racket but I push the thought out of my head. It lunges at me but I knock it to the side and while it's defenseless I roundhouse kick it somehow. Is squeaks and runs back off into the forest.

Max, who had been knocked to the ground, starts to get up. Fa- oops! I did it again. Nick, I mean, walks over and helps her to stand up and dust herself off. She gives me a grateful look. "Wow, Nudge! Your tennis racket really did come in handy!"

I smile and say, "You can't doubt me, guys. I saved Max! I mean, if I'd let you guys make me leave my racket at the cabin, we could be dead!" They give me looks showing mixed emotions. Maybe I shoulda left it alone.

**A/N: I'll address some things from the chapter:**

**1. No, Iggy's not blind. **

**2. Sorry if it irratates you that Fang is Nick right now. Fang will be Fang after a while. Its all part of the plot.**

**3. The wolf in this chapter was an Eraser in my dream and it actually had a badminton racket but I've tweaked my dream, too. **

**4. I actually dreamed I was Nudge but Max'll be the main character 'cause she's more focused. I'll probably mainly write from her P.O.V. and add others when its necessary. **

**5. The whole convorsation between Nudge and Iggy is from my dream, that's why it doesn't make a ton of sense. **

**6. You probably don't care about my dream. Sorry but I'll probably point out things here and there. **

**7. Gazzy and Angel will be in the next chapter. **

**8. I am so sorry, I keep Nudging out. **

** Thanks for reading!**


	3. We're All Pathetic

**A/N: Hey, guys! I want to thank all of my readers, you've surprised me that you like my story so much! I really want to thank the people that reviewed, both made me laugh for some reason! **

Max P.O.V.

The run in with the wolf shook us up a little but we still head over to the shed that holds the cooler. When we reach it we find that it's tiny, resembling an outhouse in my opinion. A small clearing surrounds it but I'm pretty sure we're far away from any sites of activities. We crowd in and find the cooler as well as a bunch of other junk. We turn and are about to leave when Iggy stops us and holds a finger to his lips, basically saying to shut up. I wasn't talking.

I listen and hear the voices of two people who I assume are counselors. I strain my ears and catch a bit about a turquoise lake. The turquoise lake, the one my mom was telling Nudge and me about. I listen harder and hear the words rare, dangerous, riches... Creepy. I peer out of the tiny window in the shed and see that one of the people is smiley Anne. No fake smile covers her face now, only a sinister, greedy one. The other counselor has red hair and I strain my ears even more and assume her name is Brigid from context. I'm really confused.

Eventually the two women walk away, leaving the four of us in the outhouse/shed. We creep out and sigh. Iggy and Nick pick up the two handles on either side of the cooler and Nudge plants herself on top of it. The boys can barely carry her so I help them out the best I can. The walk back is considerably easier, seeing as there aren't any more freak wolf attacks. We start singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat in rounds and it'd be super annoying if it weren't my idea.

Once we get back to the area near the cabins, the counselor that sent us out for the cooler comes to retrieve it. I really don't get why he couldn't go grab it himself. As he walks off in the general direction of the mess hall I just shrug. I guess there was a reason. Ugh, I sound like Nudge now.

Nick, Iggy and I head toward the mess hall behind the counselor but Nudge stops us and runs back into our cabin. I let out a loud sigh and Iggy laughs. "Maybe she's getting pepper spray in case somebody attacks us," he suggests with a smile.

Nudge runs back out without any weapons. Everyone looks surprised and she explains. "We're just eating! I needed to put my racket back so nobody'd confiscate it. And I needed a rubber band," she says gesturing to the black hair tie on her wrist. She quickly braids her dark, wavy hair down her back. Nick sighs and silently leads the way to the mess hall.

After four wrong turns we finally find the big building with a porch that wraps around it that holds around seventy kids and our lunch. We enter and the first thing I notice is how loud it is. We're late so everyone already has their food. Iggy and Nick head over to a table in the back corner of the room and Nudge and I follow, not knowing any other kids. Two kids already sit at the table, a boy who looks a bit younger than Nudge and a girl a bit younger than him. They both have blonde hair and blue eyes though the girl's hair is very, very curly.

Nudge plops down next to Iggy and he motions toward the other boy who sits across the table from him. "This is my best friend, Gazzy," he says. I look at him and say, "Gazzy? What kind of name is that?"

"My full name is the Gasman," he says confidently. Nudge and I give him weird looks."I swear on Angel's left hand it says 'Gasman' on my birth certificate," he says waving the curly haired girl's hand around. She bites his arm until he lets go.

"So," Nudge says, "how old are you, Gazzy?"

"I'm nine," he says, "and my little sis Angel's seven." He smiles at Angel who licks her hand and slaps him with it. "I can talk for myself," she says.

I look at Iggy. "So, your best friend is nine and you're my age?" I ask and he nods. "He's five years younger than you!"

Iggy shrugs and says through a mouth full of cheeseburger, "Nudge's two years younger than you."

"I guess we're all pathetic," Nick says. "I mean, I'm friends with a seven year old girl, a pair of pyromaniacs, a motormouth and... Max"

"What about me?" I ask, suddenly offended.

"I just meant that you're harder to describe with just one or two words," he replies casually.

We continue on with our meal after that having small, insignificant conversations. I notice that all six of us have huge appetites so we're constantly getting up for more food. Half way through my third cheeseburger, I tune into Nudge and Iggy's conversation.

"Wait," Nudge suddenly says sounding disappointed, "since you're friends with Angel I'm not your first female friend!" I have not a clue where that came from.

"Nah," Iggy replies, "Angel's more like my goofy little sister." He pokes Angel in the stomach and she swats his hand away and makes a face. "Well, I've always thought of you as my friend the Sasquatch," she says defensively.

"Why?" I ask honestly wanting to know.

"Well, he's tall, makes a lot of noise and he's irritating," Angel replies, cracking everyone up. Iggy gives shoots her a look of mock-hurt and Angel sticks her tongue out at him. "Grow up, doofus," she says.

"You, the girl that called me a Sasquatch and a doofus, are telling me to grow up?" Iggy asks. Angel makes another face that Iggy ignores.

"Why do Sasquatches make me think of pineapple?" Gazzy asks sincerely. Nudge and Angel start to laugh and Iggy just shrugs like it's normal.

"I don't know," Nick finally pipes in. "They always make me think of cows and bad television." I laugh at that making them look at me funny. I shrug. "He's right, you know."

**A/N: Like it? Sorry it's shorter, the next one'll be longer. I think. I know Angel's a bit meaner than she really is but I did say it'd be different. So... Thanks for reading! Review?**


	4. Olympic-Archer Nudge

**Disclaimer: You already know that I don't own Maximum Ride but I just wanted to make sure that you know that I don't own Harry Potter or the Hunger Games, either. Yes, you read right, I'm neither J.K. Rowling nor Suzanne Collins. Who woulda guessed?**

**A/N: Hey! It's been a little while, hasn't it? I apologize for being just plain lazy but I do have a treat for you! This chapter is extra long! I hope you enjoy! I wrote this whole thing on my iPod and then accidentally deleted it when I was trying to post it so I rewrote it on a laptop my dad lent me. My brilliance shows.**

Max P.O.V.

Once our meal is finished, the counselors announce who's gong to each activity and the crowd disperses. Nick, Iggy, Nudge and I all get to go to archery but Angel and Gazzy are stuck learning about the little buggies that live in the water. As we head to the door Angel stops me. "Remind me to tell you about that horror movie that scared Gaz so bad," she whispers and I nod. She skips off looking quite satisfied.

I catch up with the others that are gathered up with the other kids that are going to archery. The counselor that was talking to Anne earlier jogs up to us and introduces herself as Brigid. She leads the way to the archery range and Nick starts up a conversation with her. That's just great, he says more to this random adult in a few minuets than he says to me, his long-lost childhood friend, in an hour. Wow, what a boost to my mood.

Iggy and Nudge have already started another conversation and I don't feel like butting in so I just walk in silence, glaring at my shoes. That is, until an energetic girl around my age walks up to me and says, "Hey, are you ok?"

I nod any tell her, "Yeah, I'm just fine." She doesn't seem to want to accept that answer and to tell the truth, neither do I. "Fine," I say, "my friend is kinda ignoring me and it's getting on my nerves." She nods like it makes perfect sense.

"We haven't really introduced ourselves, have we?" she asks. "I'm J.J. It stands for Jennifer Joy but really, would you blame me for shortening it?"

I genuinely laugh at that and reply, "My name's Maximum but I'd suggest calling me Max. And you thought you had a weird name!"

J.J. and I end up talking on the whole walk to the range. Turns out she's more normal than I am but we still get along pretty well. I mentally pat myself on the back for making a friend that's neither a) the only person that will talk to me or b) my friend's friend. When we reach the archery range, she goes off to be with her other friends but we promise to talk again soon. I catch up with Iggy and Nudge who are more or less ending a debate about Harry Potter.

The range is a big, green field with large, round targets along one side. The targets have a red circle in the center with a blue ring around it with a green one circling it and white in between. It's really cliché perfect and for some odd reason, it makes me really happy. I just stare openmouthed for a second, I have always wanted to try archery.

Nudge suddenly turns to me and says, "Hey, Max! You could've helped us resolve our debate! Ig says that the Gryffindor are too glorified but I don't. I mean, there was-"

I cut her off before she can get too Nudgie. "You know that I didn't read that," I say and Iggy gives me a weird look.

"You mean, you're fourteen and you haven't read any Harry Potter yet?" he asks incredulously. I nod and he pretends to die of shock. Nick finally walks away from red-haired Brigid and sees the not-really-dead boy on the ground. He raises an eyebrow, gaining some laughs from me and Nudge.

"Max hasn't read Harry Potter!" she says a bit too loudly as she points at me. I get some weird glances from the other campers and I sigh. Nick still doesn't seem to get it but who could blame him? Nudge is talkative but not necessarily thorough. She continues her explanation, "When he found out how disconnected Max was he just died on the spot."

The Brigid decides to explain the rules and regulations and such. She scans the small crowd around her and sees Iggy on the ground. "Off the ground, Mr. Griffiths," she says and Iggy makes a big deal of getting up.

"You know," he says, "I was dead right there. Ever hear of rest in peace?"

"Ever hear of kitchen duty?" Brigid asks. "Well, you've got it tonight and tomorrow morning, Mr. Griffiths." Iggy sighs and Brigid continues.

"Rule one, absolutely no horseplay. We don't want any campers getting hurt," she says. "Rule two, I will tell you when to shoot and when to retrieve your arrows so nobody gets hurt." She goes on like that and then explains how to use the equipment. It's excruciatingly slow but I pay close attention, as I really want to do well. Finally, Brigid finishes and starts handing out bows and arrows that fit each camper. Nick and Iggy have really tall bows considering they're both over six foot. Nudge just bounces up and down like an idiot.

Finally, we get to shoot. Iggy, Nick, Nudge and I stand right beside each other. I stand with Nudge on my right, Iggy on her other side and Nick on his. Brigid gives the signal and the arrows start to fly. I plant my feet a shoulder length apart, draw the arrow back to my cheek and…

It hits the edge of the outermost ring. I sigh in frustration and try again. I hit the green ring. Better but not at all what I wanted. I look over at Iggy and Nick who keep hitting the blue and innermost white circle. Well, they've been to camp before. They had some time to practice so it shouldn't get to me. I'll be that good in no time at all.

Something I don't expect at all are the three bullseyes on Nudge's target. I watch in amazement as she gracefully pulls another arrow back, lets it fly and it hits the red circle again. She smiles a little and notices me watching her.

"How did you do that?" I ask. Of corse I need some pointers.

She just shrugs. "Hidden talents?" she suggests. Once again, she shoots an perfect bullseye, making me even madder. Lucky Nudge, she's like an African-American Katniss.

I try again, attemptting to mimic Nudge's form. I completely miss the target.

Basically, it goes on like that for another hour. Nudge shows off her newfound talent, Iggy and Nick do pretty well and I miss, miss, miss. Finally, Brigid stops us and announces that once we get back to the cabins and recreation area we have an hour and a half of free time. That makes me feel a bit better, I'll be able to talk to Gazzy and Angel, the two that didn't see me fail so epically at archery.

On the way back Nick starts another conversation with red-haired Brigid so I end up talking to J.J. Apparently, her aim wasn't too hot, either. Maybe I would be in a better mood if I had been standing next to her rather than sudden Olympic-archer Nudge. Her friends weren't as good as mine so she had a more enjoyable experience.

When we reach the area that holds the cabins, I spot the Gasman standing around, probably waiting for us. I walk up to him and say, "Hey, you seen Angel around?"

He nods. "She went over to her cabin," he says pointing to my and Nudge's cabin.

"Actually, that's my cabin," I inform the boy. "Are you sure she's there?" He nods, looking convinced.

"Yes," he says, absolutely sincere. "They filled up all of the cabins for the little girls and they probably think she's a bad influence on them, anyway. She can be manipulative." He looks very proud of his sister and I can't blame him. Angel's a good kid.

I walk into our dimly lit cabin and low and behold, there sits little Angel on one of the top bunks. She jumps down and gives me big hug. "Hey, Max! How was archery?" she says so innocently.

"I, uh…" I stutter. I don't want to admit my failure to Angel if I don't have to but I know I can't lie. Angel deserves the truth and I've got too many witnesses, anyway. "I wasn't a very good shot," I finally tell her.

She just shrugs her tiny shoulders and smiles. "It's ok," she says. "Gaz and I didn't have the best time, either. I did catch a tadpole, though."

I begin to put my clothes up and Angel climbs back up to her bunk. As I organize, she holds out a teddy bear that looks like an angel. "This is Celeste," she says. "She's an angel, just like me!"

I pat Celeste's furry head and am about to finish putting my clothes away when Nudge bursts through the doors and screams at the top of her lungs, "Hey, Max!" She surprises us so bad, I drop the tall stack of shirts I was putting up and Angel nearly falls off of her bed. I clean up the mess I made and Angel climbs back up onto the bed.

"Oh, hey, Angel," Nudge says in a conversational tone as if she hadn't just scared us witless. "Do either of you gals wanna play soccer with us?" I nod and glance at Angel who also looks like she's up for it.

Nudge leads the way to the soccer field that we saw when we had first arrived. Nick, Iggy and Gazzy stand on the field along with two other people. One boy I realize had been at archery with us and a red-haired girl stand with my friends. The boy looks friendly but the girl looks kind of mean. "The girl's only there for Nick," Nudge whispers to me. something about that makes my blood boil and I don't know why.

Once Nudge, Angel and I reach the field, Iggy says, "Ok, who wants to be team captain?" Nick and Gazzy's hands shoot up and we have our leaders.

"Gaz gets first pick since he's younger," Iggy declares. Gazzy nods, showing that he agrees that he should have first dibs.

"Hmm…" the Gasman says as if he's picking from the world's best athletes while we're only kids that probably aren't that good at soccer. "Iggy!" he finally declares, surprising exactly no one.

Nick steps up and surveys the remaining players. His gaze lingerers on me and I hope he's remembering me beating him at soccer when we were little. I haven't practiced in a while but what he doesn't know can't hurt him, right? Instead, he does something that makes me even madder. "Lissa," he says and the Red Haired Wonder runs up to him and hugs him. To make it even worse, he makes eye contact with me for at least half of a minuet afterwords.

Team Gasman gets the other boy who is apparently named Sam. Nick picks Nudge. It's down to me and Angel and I wonder how I could end up one of the last. I don't want to sound self-centered but I'm probably the most fit out of all eight of us. Gazzy picks his sister and I end up on Nick's team.

We huddle up and Nick says, "Ok, anyone got a game plan?"

"I thought you were supposed to have a plan, captain," I say jokingly and the Red Haired Wonder shoots me a mean look. I quite like that nickname, it's nice and sarcastic.

"Whatever, offense or defense?" Nick asks.

The Red Haired Wonder looks at him. "Which would be easier for me?" she asks. Seriously? Easy?

"Umm… defense, I guess," he says. She nods a bit too hard and I suddenly realize that I don't want to be on the same side of the field as her.

"I'll be offense," I say forcefully. Nick nods silently.

"Ooh, I can play defense," says Nudge. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with offense but I just like to play defense in sports. I-"

"Yes, Nudge," Nick cuts her off, finally speaking. "I guess I'm on offense with Max."

We meet Gazzy's team at the center of the field. He and Nick play rock, paper, scissors for first possession of the ball and Gazzy wins. He kicks it off to Iggy and the game begins. Iggy kicks it hard and I stop it with my shins. I nudge it in Nick's direction and he takes off toward the goal.

Nick easily avoids Angel but runs into trouble with the Gasman who must be playing offense and defense at the same time. He kicks it to me and I go to make a goal when their goalie, that boy named Sam, stops it and passes it to Iggy. I groan in frustration and Sam shrugs. "Just playing the game," he says.

Iggy and Gazzy have no problem getting past Nudge who is overwhelmed by the two boys. Once the get to Lissa who somehow ended up goalie, they kick it hard and she just runs away from it. Score team Gasman. Why hadn't Nudge been goalie? I mean, she hates it there but take one for the team, why don't you?

Once again the ball is kicked off and I end up with possession. I dribble it down toward the goal until the Gasman steals it from me. He, Nick and Sam all scramble to have the ball while I crawl away from the fight. Actually, the ball rolls away but they are boys, not the smartest things out there. I take my chance and score a goal. Angel just watches me silently as I score for my team.

The game goes on like that for a while until we decide that Gazzy's team is just better and our team has no chance of catching up. The final score is six to one which is pretty bad considering we're playing soccer. As the people walk away, Sam stops me. "You're not bad," he says. "I bet your team would have done better without Lissa." That brings a smile to my face. At least someone appreciates me.

**A/N: So… whatcha think? Good? I guess this was more of a filler chapter but I did bring in some other characters. It'll pick up later. Thanks for reading!**


	5. A Traffic Jam Of Sorts

**A/N: Yay! Next chapter!**

**I realized that if I keep up the pace of four chapters per day in the story I'll end up with forty chapters or so, so I'll be putting up longer chapters and maybe skipping some days or something. This is really slow sometimes and I need to build up character relationships, especially Nudge and Iggy's, because I have some really good things planned. And I've been trying to make everyone more in character because I've been failing at that with Angel. So, on with the story, I'm sorry I write such huge author's notes and if you read the whole thing, thank you!**

Max P.O.V.

Dinner passes pretty uneventfully although Nick keeps glancing over at the Red Haired Wonder. I have decided that she makes me really mad and I want nothing to do with her. Look at me, figuring out my emotions all by myself.

Anyway, after that we had some free time before we had to go to bed. Normally there'd be another activity before bedtime but I guess someone forgot to think up one for tonight.

Angel, Nudge and I head back to our cabin, Nudge and Angel just being lazy and me wanting nothing to do with the Red Haired Wonder. As we walk away, I see Nick talking to Lissa and I don't know if I want to hurt someone or puke.

As we enter our cabin I let my eyes adjust to the dim lighting. Angel changes into a simple white nightgown and Nudge puts on bright blue pajamas with bright white clouds on them. I put on the standard t-shirt and shorts. Nudge gives me one of her 'you have no fashion sense' looks which I gracefully ignore.

Angel climbs up onto the bed she was sitting on earlier and Nudge gets onto the other top bunk.

"Are we going to discuss this arrangement?" I ask and Nudge pretends to contemplate her options.

"Nope," she says quickly. I shake my head and lay down on the bed under Angel.

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

I wake up as soon as the sun is up and head over to the bathroom, I might as well take advantage of being the only one up. As I brush my teeth I hear the most awful sound; a blood-curdling, ear splitting scream. I know that Nudge doesn't sound like that so it must be Angel. I rush into the bedroom and see Angel sitting on her bed, perfectly fine.

"Was that you?" I ask. Her little head bobs up and down.

"Well, what was it for?" I practically scream.

She shrugs her tiny shoulders and says, "I just thought it was a good time to scream."

I sigh and decide to wake up Nudge. She sleeps like a rock so the scream didn't wake her up. I nudge her shoulder and say, "Get up, Nudge." She just groans and rolls over.

I decide to give her five more minuets while I get dressed. Once I've got on my oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts I try again with the same results.

"Breakfast," I finally say and she sits straight up.

"Breakfast?!" she screeches. "Did I miss it?!" Her hair that was wavy yesterday now floats around her head in tight curls. The waviness was the product of a straightening iron.

I shake my head and she collapses back onto her bed. "Gimme twenty minuets," she says groggily.

Angel walks into the bathroom to brush her teeth, dragging Celeste behind her. I should ask why she needs her teddy bear to brush her teeth but I've never been one to ask unnecessary questions. Besides, Nudge still needs to get up.

I poke Nudge again and she drags herself out of her bed. I hear Angel scream again and I rush into the bathroom. She points to Celeste who has a huge clump of blue toothpaste in her fur.

"Well, do something!" she says after I stare blankly at the bear for nearly a full minuet.

I grab Celeste and wipe the toothpaste out with my bare hands. I rinse all of the toothpaste out of everything and Angel grabs her bear back without a thank-you.

"Uh, forgetting something?" I ask Angel.

"Uh huh," she mutters. I look at her expectantly and she says through a mouth full of toothpaste, "Thank you, Max." It sounds more like, "Shank ooh, Mac."

I sigh and trudge back into the bedroom where Nudge nearly body-slams me. "Ohmigosh, blue or pink?" she screeches at me while holding up two shirts of the previously stated colors.

"Uh," I say so intelligently. Nudge gives me an impatient look and I choke out, "Blue?"

She shakes her head and sets down the shirt I suggested. She starts to change into the pink shirt and I groan. "Why ask my opinion if you already had your mind made up?"

"Uh, duh, you have no fashion-sense at all so if you as blue I know that the right answer is pink!" she says in one breath, very quickly.

I sigh and collapse onto my bed. If I knew waking up would be so hard, I never woulda done it.

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

The three of us walk into the mess hall only a few minuets late. We walk over to the boys who all look annoyed at us. With the exception of Nick. Who is looking at Lissa. My morning is not going well.

My frantic morning has made me tired so I stare off into space for a second. Gazzy snaps his fingers beside my ear and I jump. I can be pretty jumpy at times. My siblings did that to me. Ella, Ari and Maya.

"Uh, Max?" Iggy asks. "What's on your mind?"

"My siblings," I reply. "They can be pretty frantic."

"What does Ella have to do with this?" Nudge asks and I shrug. I pile those hash brown things onto my plate.

"Nothing, I guess." I answer. "My mind just wanders sometimes."

"Who are your siblings?" Angel asks with a cute little look on her face.

"Sibling," Nudge corrects. "She's got a sister my age named Ella. She's cool but she's kinda popular at school."

"Max said siblings," Gazzy points out, drawing out the second 's' in 'siblings' so that it lasts for three seconds or so. He has a mouth full of bacon which he spews onto us.

"Yeah, you're forgetting about Maya and Ari," I point out to Nudge.

She just shrugs, "I always forget about your dad's side of the family. Ya know, 'cuz I never actually see them."

The rest of the table just gives us blank looks so I explain, "My parents divorced. Maya and I are twins but she lives with our father because she's the easy twin. Ella's just my mom's and Ari's just my dad's"

"Ok," says the Gasman though I doubt he was listening.

"Anyway," I continue, "Ella's dad ended up divorcing our mom and Ari's mom died. So, two single parent households that I bounce between from time to time. Maya usually stays with our dad. What about you guys?"

"I live with my parents and a cat," Nudge says happily. I roll my eyes because it's old information to me.

"I live with my mom, my dad and my dog, Total," Angel says. Gazzy makes a face at her and she adds, "And my brother."

"Just my parents," Iggy informs through a mouthful of food.

"Mom," Nick says. Would it kill him to say a full sentence? Or take his eyes off of the Red Haired Wonder? Probably.

We continue eating and I notice that Nudge really likes the hash brown patties. She keeps eating more and more. Everyone seems to notice it in time and we all stare as she shovels more into her mouth. She looks up and notices us watching her.

"Uh, how many of those can you eat?" the Gasman asks.

Nudge shrugs. "I think I've eaten, like, twelve now."

"Twelve?" I ask. She nods and I sigh.

"You know, twelve is two times six and and there are six of us!" Gazzy declares.

Iggy raises an eyebrow and Gazzy continues, "We did multiplication this year in school. Someone should eat twelve of something every meal!"

We all nod as the counselors make an announcement. They direct us to today's morning activities. The group Iggy, Nick, Nudge and I are in gets to go to a high ropes course. We're all psyched, with the exception of Angel and the Gasman who get to learn about compasses.

We head out the door like yesterday and Angel groans. "I already know how to use a stupid compass!"

"Sorry, Ange," I tell her. "There'll be some fun activities for you."

"So when do they start?" she asks sarcastically. I ruffle her hair and walk back over to my group. It's smaller than yesterday but I notice the Red Haired Wonder among the crowd. Great.

Brigid must be the counselor that always leads us because she shows up again and leads the way to the high ropes course. Now both redheads are here. This had better be a good activity.

We take the same path that we took to the archery range but we walk past it, farther into the woods. Nick talks with the Red Haired Wonder, making me mad. Iggy and Nudge are always talking and now isn't any exception. I feel left out and this time I don't have J.J. to talk to. This day had better shape up.

We reach a shed that holds the equipment and Brigid starts to explain the gear we need. It's a bit repetitive but I try to stay as interested as possible. This is better than archery. I think.

After what seems like an hour of explanation (like yesterday), we put on our harnesses and helmets and head over to the actual course.

Nudge P.O.V.

You know that shiny, colorful, metal high ropes course at Dollywood? If you don't know what I'm talking about just try to imagine it. I mean, it's really awesome but I never got to go on it. Dollywood is so cool, though. I love the roller coasters! Oh, wait, I got sidetracked, didn't I?

Anywho, you know the previously mentioned high ropes course? Yeah, this one's nothing like that. It's tall and everything but this one's wooden with cables and ropes and stuff. Wow, should I puke or volunteer to go first?

There are a bunch of things we have to walk around, over and through. Brigid and the other counselors explain what everything is and how we can go all the way around the course or halfway around it.

They start helping people climb up the pole and rope-net-thingy. I don't volunteer right away so I end up behind people. Iggy goes up the pole and Max follows. Two people follow her but I don't know them. The girl named Lissa goes up the net thing and Nick and Sam follow. I go up behind them but I have to stop once I reach the top because Lissa started a traffic jam of sorts.

The counselor that's up at the top with me helps me to hook the lobster-claw-thing to the obstacle behind me that seems to be just a wire with ropes for you to hold onto for support. He tells me to just stay there for the time being. Iggy is starting that obstacle at this point so we start a conversation.

"How is it?" I ask a bit loudly.

"This is so cool!" he replies. "I can't stand looking down, though!"

I laugh. "How high up are we?"

"Fourteen feet, I think," he replies. I laugh nervously.

He walks across the wire and stops by me. We just kind of sit there and watch the others make their way slowly around the track. Max, who is behind Iggy in the lineup, just lengthens the lobster-claw-thing and sits on one of the beams. I wave and she waves back.

The traffic jam starts to let up and I am able to start across the ropes. I wave to Iggy who goes down the rope-thingy. I try not to shake while I walk across the rope-bridge thing but it's just so high up. And kinda cold. I walk around that half of the course and shake the whole time.

I'm the last one off and although I was terrified, I'm sad to have to get off. Once I'm on the ground we start to walk back to the shed for the equipment. We put everything back and go back toward the recreation area.

The whole walk back is interesting enough, Iggy and I talk. I mean, I do more of the talking but he hasn't protested yet. Once we get back to the place that has some actual buildings, we see Gazzy and Angel.

"How was your _fun _activity?" Gazzy asks with a scowl.

"It was great," I say.

"Lucky you," he replies. "Compasses are so boring!"

"Ditto," Angle puts in. Poor kids.

"Well, we get to eat now," Iggy says, trying to lighten the mood. It works, the two little blondes look much happier after that.

**A/N: Super long, I know. Nice right? Raise your hand if you're sick of Fang being Nick!*raises hand* Ugh, I gotta fix that. Like I said, I need to build up stronger relationships in characters before some things can happen. Anywho, thanks for reading!**

**And, totally optional question, what do you think of songfics? I like them and am thinking of posting some. Now that I think about it, I have no real reason of asking but I do like opinions. **


	6. Is It Max And Nick?

**Disclaimer: Let's just say that if you recognize it than I probably didn't make it up so it doesn't belong to me and you can't sue me. This applies to the rest of the story so… yeah. Why didn't I do this before?**

**A/N: Have you ever noticed that Lissa, Brigid and Dylan are usually really OOC in stories because people hate them for messing with Fax? Oh, I hope you like this chapter 'cuz I totally rewrote it after a pretty sucky first draft. This one's much better.**

**I changed the rating if you haven't noticed. I'm just a little paranoid and something a bit creepy comes up at dinner in this chapter. Don't blame me, blame Ender Wiggin. He… never mind. Just read the book if you're wondering.**

Max P.O.V.

The six of us enter the mess hall at the same time but instead of sitting with us, Nick sits with the Red Haired Wonder and her friends. Our table feels lopsided with a chair empty. I glance over at Nick and I might just be imagining it but he seems kind of… Bored? Annoyed?

The Red Haired Wonder just doesn't make any sense to me so I ask about her when Iggy and I are the only ones at the table. Once the younger kids are up for more food, I ask, "What's he doing with her, anyway?"

Iggy follows my gaze to the table all the way across the room and says, "She has a crush on him or something. She kissed him once. Or was it twice?" I feel my face flush with anger, causing Iggy to laugh.

"What?" I ask, making sure my annoyance is obvious.

"Nothing," he says in mock innocence, "I just think someone has a crush!" He reaches across the table and pokes me in the nose.

"Oh, whatever," I say, automatically defensive.

"Denial," Iggy replies in a high-pitched singsongy voice. I roll my eyes and he continues to laugh at me.

"Did I hear the word crush?" Nudge asks with a devious smile as she, Angel and Gazzy return to the table. "Who likes who? Is it Max and Nick?"

"Nobody said crush and I certainly don't like Nick!" I yell back.

"Ah ha!" Nudge exclaims."Confirmation!" She and Iggy high-five each other and I groan.

"You guys are ganging up on me?" I ask. They nod simultaneously with matching facial expressions the basically say 'duh!'

"Useless crushes aside," Angel says, "I think Gazzy and I will get a fun activity today!" Her brother perks up at that notion.

We continue to eat with light conversation until Nudge suddenly says, "Twelve!"

"What?" I ask and she gives me a look that says 'uh, duh!'

"We have to eat twelve of something!" she exclaims. "Why'd you guys forget?"

I ignore her question and just pluck twelve cucumber slices off of her salad. I pop them into my mouth and eat them quickly. "Problem solved," I announce.

Gazzy rolls his eyes. "The next one's gotta be better," he says.

"Sure thing," I say, not really listening. Or caring for that matter.

We abruptly stop our conversation as our counselors start to announce activities. My age group (which includes Nudge, Iggy, yada, yada, yada) is learning about wilderness survival. Angel and Gazzy get to play an animal-survival kinda game that sounds fun.

We walk out the door and meet up with our age group. Brigid leads down a dirt road to a secluded area where she tells us all about building shelters and such. When we get our turn to build something, Nudge, Nick, Iggy and I form an alliance.

While Iggy and Nudge put our A-frame together, Nick and I gather whatever we can find to put on the shelter. We walk around the woods in an awkward silence until I can't take it anymore.

"You remember hanging out as little kids, right?" I ask him. "You seem to have forgotten that we were best friends."

"I remember," he says quietly.

I shake my head and step over a fallen tree. "Then why don't you act like it? You spend so much time with Lissa and I doubt she really knows you."

"Eh, Lissa's pushy," he replies. "I'd prefer to spend time with you."

"Really?" I ask, feeling my face get hot.

Nick smirks as we find a dead tree with bark we can pull off in large clumps. "Yes, really," he says. He holds up some of the bark and asks, "Shingles?"

I nod as my face seems to return to normal. We gather up the makeshift-shingles and head back to Iggy and Nudge. The silence is more comfortable now.

"Why don't you go by Fang anymore?" I ask after a while of wandering around.

"I don't know, people just kinda bugged me about it, especially after vampires came into style," he replies. That's probably the longest sentence he's ever said.

"Well, zombies are the next big thing so you can be Fang again," I say. "If it helps, I liked you better a Fang."

He laughs a little and says, "You know, I did, too."

"Ok, you're Fang now," I announce to the newly renamed Fang.

I smile at him and trip over a stray root in the millisecond I looked away from the world in front of me. The 'shingles' in my hands, that just _have _to be difficult, fly in every direction. Before I can hit the ground, Fang drops all of _his_ 'shingles' and catches me around the waist.

"Thanks," I say, my face reddening again, no doubt.

And then Nudge turns up. Her jaw drops and her eyes fly to Fang's arms around my waist. She squeals and says in the same singsongy voice Iggy used this morning, "Confirmation!"

Fang drops me, thank goodness I wasn't far from the ground, and we both try to hide our blushes. I don't know about me but Fang fails pretty badly.

"Oh my gosh, we were wondering what you guys were doing!" she says. I feel a Nudge-rant coming on. "You've been gone for, like, ever so I went looking for you. Iggy thought you were either eaten by a bear or making out or someth-"

"We weren't making out," I defend ourselves but Nudge doesn't listen.

"And then I find the two of you all romantic with absolutely nothing collected!" she rants on. "When were you going to tell us that you were dating?"

"Dating?" Fang chokes out.

"So you are," Nudge tries to confirm.

"No, with a capital N-O!" I yell at her and she just grins wider.

"Lies, lies, chicken pot pies!" she sings as she skips away.

Fang and I gather as many 'shingles' as we can and head back with whatever dignity we have left. When we get back, Iggy and Nudge are giggling like a pair of second-grade girls.

"Shingles," Fang says while shoving the pieces of bark in Iggy's face.

"Sure thing, Nick," he says with a grin.

"He's going by Fang now, I say and Iggy and Nudge nod.

Once our shelters are finished, the counselors inspect them and deem ours the most effective against wind, water and whatever else Mother Nature can throw at us. I look around at the laughable shelter that the Red Haired Wonder and her friends built. My day is awesome now.

We walk back along the road to the recreation area with a nice atmosphere. Iggy and Nudge walk together, talking as always and I lift an eyebrow. What gives them the right to accuse us of liking each other? They only spend all day together.

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

The six of us walk together to the mess hall after a pretty boring break time. We pass a couple of counselors and I catch the words 'turquoise' and 'lake' in the same sentence again. I file them in the 'research later' cabinet in my head.

We enter the mess hall We sit down with Fang this time and it feels so much better. I sit between him and Angel on one side of the table with Gazzy, Iggy and Nudge on the other side in that order. We dig into our meals and everyone's happier.

Nudge P.O.V.

"Genocide is really, really bad," says sweet little Angel. What?!

"How in the, uh, _heck_ do you even know what that means?" Max asks. Angel shrugs and I just wonder.

We continue to eat, ignoring Angel's creepy comment. After a while, I look up at Iggy and see him _staring _at me.

"What?" I ask a bit harshly.

"Nothing," he replies as he looks away.

We eat in awkward silence until Gazzy starts singing the song that never ends and Iggy joins in. I laugh as Max and Fang try to stop them with everything from bribes to death threats.

After dinner we learn that we don't have any activity tonight like last night. I wonder what those are actually like.

Max, Ange and I walk back to our cabin happily. I think about this pretty awesome day while the others discuss I-don't-know-what. We enter the cabin and get ready for bed, us wearing basically the same thing as last night.

As Max turns out the lights and we curl up under the covers, only one thing stays on my mind- Iggy was staring at me and I actually liked it.

**A/N: Like it? Those major Fax shippers must like that progress. Oh, and Fang is Fang now! Raise your hand if you're totally relieved! *raises hand as high as can* **

**Thanks for reading! This is so much better than my original draft, believe me!**

**Optional question, do you like Taylor Swift music? Are you a Swiftie or an Anti-Swiftie? Or neither? I'm the first. **


	7. Like Chlorine?

**A/N:Sorry it took five minutes from forever to post this, I was having issues with my muse. As in, it doesn't really exist or something like that. I'm trying to make this story move a bit faster but there is also that pesky fact that I'm not sure what to do with this story. I'm making it up as I go along but not bad, eh?**

**I wanted to tell you guys about this one story that I'm following. It's Life of a School Girl by the Good Elkin. There aren't many people reading it and let me tell you, it's a great story, a backstory to the MR series. Check it out or don't but if you want to, you can find it with my favorites. Thanks!**

Max P.O.V.

I wake up early and get dressed silently. I mean, not as silently as Fang could've done but pretty close. I grab my shoes and socks and run out the door before Angel and Nudge can even stir. I race across the gravel pathways barefoot until I reach the amphitheater we saw on the first day.

I sit down on the steps and as I pull my tennis shoes on, I hear a familiar voice say, "Hey, Max."

I jump and stifle a scream. Fang walks around so that I can see him with that same smirk on his face.

"How? What?" I stutter. His look of amusement only grows.

"Never mind," I finally grumble after only silence. I stare down at my tennis shoes and see the turquoise shoelaces. Then I remember…

"Do you remember what those counselors were talking about when we got that cooler two days ago?" I ask and he shrugs then shakes his head. I continue, "The turquoise lake, whatever that is. And I heard someone talking about that last night, too."

"So…?" he asks.

"So, why don't we do some research or something to figure out what it is that they want with it?" I reply. "Only problem, we're at camp, there aren't any computers."

"Actually, I have a laptop and there's Wi-Fi here," Fang replies. I raise an eyebrow at that.

"Ok, the laptop part doesn't fully shock me but there's Wi-Fi?"

"Sure, maybe it's connected to this whole mystery," he answers.

"Ok, where's this laptop of your's?" I ask and he sighs.

"Cabin. Iggy and Gazzy are probably up by now so if I go in there they'd get suspicious."

I sigh and sit back. "Well, I guess we'll have to wait."

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

Fang and I walk into the mess hall before anyone else in our little group can. Eventually, Angel and Nudge bounce in, totally psyched about something.

"What's so exciting?" I ask and they giggle.

"There's actually gonna be an activity tonight!" Nudge squeals.

"Ok, what is it?" Fang asks and their faces drop a little.

"Just reader's theater," Angel answers.

"Then why were you so excited?" I ask. They shrug.

"It's something different," Nudge answers. "What's for breakfast?"

"Something different," Fang answers, gaining the girl's smiles back.

Iggy and Gazzy enter five minutes later, so basically, they're late. The two sit on opposite sides of the table which wouldn't be too bad if Gazzy hadn't set himself down between Fang and me. They don't look at each other which seems odd considering they spend all of their time together.

"Why aren't you sitting together?" I ask. Iggy turns to me and answers, making an effort not to look at the Gasman.

"We usually have a day where we ignore each other," he says as if it's totally normal to ignore your best friend all day for no real reason.

"Why?" Nudge asks, new to this concept as well.

"No reason," Gazzy replies. I have to keep myself from pointing out that he'd have to be listening to Iggy to know what we were talking about. "We just thought it was a good idea."

"It's almost scary what you two consider a good idea," I say gaining only smug smiles form the boys.

-SOME NUMBER OF HOURS LATER-

Two boring educational activities and two good meals later, we all gather up in a theater-place with a wooden stage on the far wall. We're performing all kinds of plays for the reader's theater theater night. The actors are chosen randomly so I might have to go up. At least we get to have the script with us while we preform. Hence the reader's part.

For now, Fang and I sit in the back corner researching the lake. There is something about it having some rare chemical in it but there's no proof. Another slightly alarming thing is that it's only a mile hike away from the camp.

"What if the counselors walk us there and push us in to see if we grow gills?" I ask.

"Well, I wouldn't put it past them," Fang answers. "Most of the decent counselors left years ago, I think Brigid is the only one left."

I try not to show how angry the mention of the redhead makes me. As the awkwardness fades, Angel runs up to us.

"We choose you two to be in the next play," she says and I notice all of the people watching us. Oh, great.

She leads us up onto the stage where Gazzy, Iggy, Nudge and J.J. already stand. Iggy hands out scripts but skips Gazzy because of their 'ignore your best friend' game. Somehow, they've kept it up pretty well today.

Nudge passes her script off to the Gasman and asks Iggy for another. I look down at mine and notice that the story is about Perseus and Medusa. I'm the narrator which at least means I won't have to do anything super stupid.

Iggy gets to play the hero of the story and funnily enough, Angel is his mother. Gazzy is playing Medusa which should end well considering Iggy won't acknowledge his existence today. J.J. and Nudge play the other Gorgons and Fang is the greedy king.

We skim our parts quickly and begin the show. Or as I like to call it, the disaster.

I'm first up to speak and let me tell you, the script is pretty terrible. "Long ago in the land of Greece… uh… wow, this is crap…"

Once I give up on the introduction, Iggy, Angel and Fang start their first scene. Iggy starts laughing by his second line, the laughter soon spreading to Angel and even making Fang laugh a little. They give up, too.

Then comes the scene where Iggy slays Gazzy. He enters the 'cave' and says, "Where the heck is the ugly beast?" He stares directly at the Gasman while he says it. I think the line either was more heroic or wasn't real.

Turns out I was supposed to be narrating the story so I just throw the script away and wing it. "Uh, the heroic hero, Perseus, uh…"

"Just kill him already!" Nudge finally yells even though her character was supposed to be asleep. J.J. nods too and they start chanting 'kill him, kill him' at Iggy. He grabs a handful of Gazzy's hair and yanks it.

"There, she's dead!" he exclaims. "Thanks a lot, now we have to start ignore your best friend day over again!"

Then is the final scene, the one where Perseus uses the head of Medusa to turn the king guy into stone. Iggy runs in and says, "Look away, mother." The point of that line was to save Angel's character's life. Instead, Angel looks at Iggy and supposedly turns to stone.

And now I have to wrap up our totally accurate play. "Uh… now… the end!"

The crowd has varied expressions but the one obvious thing is nobody liked it. Maybe I ruined it by calling the script crap. I guess the truth is frowned upon.

The counselors usher us off the stage before we can even take our bows. Maybe it's better that way. They don't even get onto us for making a fool of their stupid play. If all the nighttime activities are this much fun, I might even enjoy camp more.

Fang and I go back to researching the lake once the play's over but Nudge and Gazzy follow us. When Nudge sees what we were researching, she says, "Oh, are you still on that? What did ay find?"

"Not much," I answer. "We know it's speculated to have some kind of chemical in it and it's a mile from here."

"A chemical?" the Gasman says. "Like chlorine?"

"I don't think so," I answer. The nine-year-old shrugs.

"It really looks like chlorine."

"I get it now!" Nudge says suddenly and unexpectedly as usual.

"What?" I ask. She just stares off into space, not acknowledging any of us. Hopefully she didn't suddenly figure out something to do with the lake.

The plays end and I still think ours was the best. We trudge back to our cabins and get ready for bed. I fall asleep thinking about the lake, everything from the counselors talking about it on the first day to Gazzy thinking it was chlorine.

**A/N: I'm so sorry it's not too good. Oh, goodness, it's short and sucky. I wasn't very inspired but I did get some ideas for future chapters and I wanted to get the plot moving a bit faster. So, a whole day in one chapter. Eh… please don't hate me for this terrible chapter. The next one is gonna be better and I'll try not to take forever to post it.**

**P.S. You can still check out Life of a School Girl!**


	8. Zephyr and Ariel Martian

**A/N: Ok, I think I'm over my not inspired stage. I talked myself to sleep one night and got a ton of other story ideas that I might use later. So… Next chapter, as promised. I made it rain because where I am it's raining and has been since I-don't-even-remember. I was gonna wait to post this but I just have to put something better than that last chapter up NOW.**

**You know what makes me mad? I ordered Nevermore at my local bookstore and apparently, someone 'picked it up for me' meaning, they took it. And I don't know who it is. At least I didn't pay for it beforehand. That would've really sucked.**

Max P.O.V.

I wake up to Angel and Nudge singing and dancing around the cabin in their pajamas. I guess I didn't wake up early enough. Either that or they caught on to my 'escape the crazies' idea.

When I sit up and start to get out of bed the two younger girls grab my arms and yank me along in their game of ring around the rosy. I try to keep myself from mentioning how the song is about the plague.

After the game has lost its appeal and I've blinked the sleep out of my eyes, I tell them to get dressed. The three of us put on the typical t-shirts and shorts though Nudge has a hard time figuring out what to wear. I'm fully dressed by the time she's picked out a shirt.

As Angel and I walk out the door, I call, "Get dressed faster Nudge." She sticks her tongue out at me and continues to rifle through her clothes.

Angel and I walk along the pathways that are soaked from the rain last night. I look up at the sky to find light gray clouds as far as the eye can see. The air is not cold but just cool enough to make me wish I had a jacket. Angel has a sweatshirt over her t-shirt and looks very comfortable.

"So…" she starts to say. "How long have we been here 'cause it feels like a year."

"It's only been three days, this being the fourth," I answer as the clouds decide it's not wet enough on the ground. What I mean is it starts raining again.

"Really?" she asks. "I guess time takes longer for a kid my age."

We walk in a comfortable silence until we meet Gazzy and Iggy who were just standing by a tree, talking. The two join us on our walk to the mess hall which is getting wetter by the second.

"What happened to ignore your best friend day?" I ask. The two boys shrug.

"Nudge and your other friend ruined it so we had to ditch the idea," the Gasman says, trying to pout. "It's not fun the second time around."

We pass a huge tree that must be really good for climbing as Iggy asks where Nudge is. I tell him all about her indecisiveness when it comes to clothes. Come to think of it, she won't like the mud.

We enter the mess hall looking like drowned rats. I ring my hair out, regretting leaving my jacket in the cabin. Angel looks considerably dry without her wet hoodie and the boys had on windbreakers.

When we get to the table we see a totally dry Fang just sitting there. He smirks at me, obviously because of my wet clothes. I make a face and sit on the opposite side of the table from him. The meal starts without Nudge showing up and I'm about to go get her when I realize how good the bacon is.

She finally enters fifteen minutes later sporting a raincoat. She carries a backpack behind her which I realize is mine. Upon removing her coat, I realize that she's wearing a shirt of mine, too.

Nudge walks up to the table and sits beside me. I'm about to get on to her for stealing my belongings just so hers don't get wet when she pulls my and Angel's raincoats out of the backpack. So, instead of yelling at her which I was prepared to do, I hug her. She grimaces as the water on my shirt soaks through hers.

"Thanks, Nudge," I say and she just shrugs.

"I just thought it would help," she answers. "I mean, I was on my way here when it started raining so I went back for your jackets because nobody likes being wet."

Then Gazzy sits up very straight and declares, "Twelve, done, courtesy of me!"

"Twelve of what?" I ask. I notice that he still has bacon and eggs on his plate.

"Pancakes!" he declares. It's actually pretty impressive that a kid his size could eat so much.

The counselors then announce what activities we'll be able to do because of the rain. All we really can do are arts and crafts or indoor sports. I'm incredibly relieved when they inform us that my age group will play sports in the gym. One of the only times I've done arts and crafts is when Maya signed us up for a class and I made a giant piggybank that looks more like a cat than a pig. Maya still has her perfect little sheep and insisted on me keeping my failure.

We head out the door when the rain lets up a little. Angel and I walk beside each other until we have to part, her going to arts and crafts and me going to the gym. From there, I walk with Nudge who seems to really enjoy the rain. She tilts her head back and lets the raindrops hit her face. And trips on a pebble.

Angel P.O.V.

We walk into the dusty little building and our counselor, Anne, explains what we can build or paint. I choose to build a birdhouse 'cause I saw it in a movie once. Gazzy crawls under a table though I think I'm the only one who noticed. Most of the kids dislike my brother.

I wait for a second then hear a high-pitched scream and a boy yell something along the lines of, "Oh, my God, what was that?" Both kids tip backwards in their chairs and land on the ground making a thumping sound.

I break into hysterical laughter which I try to hide. My brother must be trying to make macaroni necklaces and sparkly birdhouses interesting. I think Gazzy's the only interesting kid in this little group Anne dictates. Which ranges from ages seven to eleven, by the way. That's just poor planning.

Gazzy crawls out from under the table just as I finish putting the roof on my birdhouse. Anne glowers at him and he tries to keep a straight face. "Care to explain yourself, Mr. Martin?"

Gazzy sighs and says, "Don't you wish my last name was martian?"

Anne rolls her eyes and directs him over to a table. He grabs something that I can't identify and walks over to my table. Grabbing something else he says, "Cover me, little sis."

He crawls under the table and I block Anne's view of him. I paint the roof of the birdhouse pale blue like Iggy's eyes and the walls black like Fang's hair. And his eyes. And all of his clothes. I think the birds would get claustrophobic with black walls in their house but they can deal. It looks really cool.

Gazzy taps my feet and we both walk away from the table. Good thing we were the only ones there or he might've knocked the other kids out with his stink bomb. We try to look anything but guilty when it goes off and everyone shouts. It doesn't work because this isn't the first time Gazzy has done something like this. All eyes shoot to us.

Anne evacuates the cabin and leads the other kids to the gym to watch the older kid's kickball game. She keeps the two of us outside under the awning over the doors.

"What were you two thinking?" she practically screams at us. Like she expected the two of us to stay good all summer.

"I still wish our last name was martian," Gazzy says. "Think of it, Zephyr and Ariel Martian."

I turn to him. "Our names aren't Zephyr and Ariel."

"No, but that'd be so cool," he answers. "More interesting than the Gasman and Angelica."

"I go by Angel…" I say, trailing off under Anne's glare.

"I have half a mind to-" she says but Gaz cuts her off.

"You mean you lost the other half?" he asks.

"I have half a mind to call your parents," she says, ignoring Gazzy's comment.

"You can't," I tell her. "They're in some other country, one that starts with the letter S, I think. Or maybe it was a C. Either way, they're not to be disturbed." See, our parents are really rich sciencey people. They pay extra for us to go to camp here because the people here are fed up with us. They need money, though. I think we're the only things keeping the camp open.

Anne opens her mouth to speak again when a big thumping sound interrupts her. The sound is followed by people calling Fang's real name and a couple of people saying is nickname, those people probably being our friends. Judging by the sound coming from the general area of the ceiling, I'd say he hit it with the ball.

"Anyway," Anne says once the noise settles down, "even if your parents cannot be contacted, we still have to punish you two."

"Like how?" my brother asks. "Kitchen duty?"

"Or banning us from camp activities?" I add.

"How about both of those?" Anne asks as the rain picks up again. "Kitchen duty for today and tomorrow and you'll have no camp activities while it's in effect."

Gazzy and I groan but Anne is already ushering us into the gym. She informs us this'll be the last thing we participate in until day after tomorrow which isn't very exciting 'cause we aren't even getting to play kickball with the kids Max's age.

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

Max P.O.V.

The six of us sit at our table for lunch like usual. Apparently, the counselors can't take a joke and gave Gazzy and Angel kitchen duty _and_ banned them from camp activities. On the bright side for them, there isn't any activity tonight so they won't miss out.

The rain let up an hour ago so we could do some outdoor activities but a lot of them have been ruled out. I think we have a choice of going back to archery or doing some boring game on the basketball court with the least amount of puddles. And, duh, I picked archery.

We have hotdogs for lunch and we all enjoy the food. For the twelve of something, Iggy eats twelve chips, saying he didn't like them that much. I think he snuck more when he though nobody was looking but I didn't say anything.

After the meal, the counselors lead us to the activities we chose. Nudge, Fang and Iggy are coming to archery with me. As I leave the room, I shoot Angel a look meant to encourage her. I have no idea if she actually saw it, though.

Fang and I walk along the puddle spotted pathways in a comfortable silence. I think it'd be more comfortable if Nudge weren't rambling to Iggy ten feet away, though. She's always talking that poor boy's ears off. I hope he doesn't mind her, he seems like the kind of person who'd tell Nudge when she started getting on his nerves.

This time I hope I can do better than before. Thankfully, J.J. decided to join us for archery so maybe I can stand with her instead of my intimidating friends. Ok, archery take two.

**A/N: So… whatcha think? I liked this, like, five billion times more than the last chapter. I think I shoulda rewritten that but I really don't know what I could do. Oh, my gosh I never noticed the guitar solo in the song Double Take… Yeah, I have the Austin and Ally soundtrack on my iPod.**

**Anyway, surprise Angel section! Did you like it? I did though it's hard to speak like a seven year old when you have the vocabulary of a me. So Ange's really smart. Is it bad I had an idea for a sequel before finishing the original? Oh, have you seen the alien on Google?**

**Sorry about my ranting, I am Nudge but older and without the wings. So, thanks for reading!**


	9. Déjà Vu But Wetter

**A/N: ok, next chapter. I've been trying to keep ahead and have chapters prewritten. And making the best of this inspired stage. And, hooray! I'm naming my chapters now because I know chapter names can make navigating a story a bit easier. They're all quoted from some part of the chapter.**

Max P.O.V.

Once we reach the archery range, which is only a little drenched I might add, Brigid goes over the rules and all that but it only takes half of forever instead of forever like last time. Once she's done with her boring speech, she helps fit us with bows and arrows like last time. It's like deja vu but wetter.

Like I said, deja vu. J.J. hangs out with her other friends and I end up beside Nudge. This time, however, I'm standing with only Nudge, as she made sure we weren't near the boys. Why did I end up with the one person who can shoot with incredible accuracy?

Nudge shoots three bullseyes before starting a conversation with me. I wanted peace and quiet while I tried to improve but that isn't a thing when Nudge is nearby.

"So, _do_ you like Fang?" she asks as she hits the target again. This comment scares me so much, I actually hit the bullseye.

"Nudge!" I squeal like I've never done before and will never do again. "Did you see that? I hit the bullseye! Perfect shot!" I jump up and down, probably looking like an exceptionally stupid idiot. (yes, I really did mean to say that)

"Big deal," she replies sarcastically. "So do you like him?"

"I've never gotten a bullseye before," I say, getting annoyed with her. "And I like Fang as a friend if that's what you mean."

Nudge makes one of her trademark 'you really don't get this' faces at me. "Max, Max, Max," she says while shaking her head. "You're fourteen, please don't think I don't realize how stupid that comment is. If you say 'I only like him as a friend,' you're hiding something. Like a spy. Ooh, didn't you love movies about animal spies?"

"I don't like talking animals and I'm certainly not hiding anything," I reply.

"Denial, denial," she says as if it's her new favorite word. Which it could very well be. Nudge's favorite word literally changes with the tide.

"Whatever," I defend myself. Oh, one never gets too used to Nudge. "How are you in a position to accuse me of liking him when you spend all of your time with Iggy?"

She makes a horrified face at me then tries to hide her sheepish expression. We stand in awkward silence for a long time, just firing arrows at the targets and fuming at each other.

Finally, Nudge breaks the silence, her being the kind of person who would, and asks, "So… gotta song stuck in your head? 'Cause I've got two Katy Perry songs, a Taylor Swift song and the Doctor Who theme-thingy stuck in my head on loop."

"Ugh, only the Spongebob theme song," I reply. Then noticing her weird look, I elaborate. "That's, like, the only thing Ari ever watches when I'm over at Jeb's house. And Maya only watches stupid dramas that I think you'd like so I just stay away from the television at Jeb's place."

"I've always thought it was weird that you call your dad by his first name," Nudge remarks. "And I'll try to ignore the obvious insult you just shot at me. Oh, that sounds funny because, you know, we're shooting arrows and you're shooting insults"

"What would you expect? I can't call him by his last name, Batchelder, it'd confuse Ari," I reply, ignoring the rest of her most recent statement.

"Then why don't you just call him dad?" she asks, shooting yet another bullseye.

"'Cause he's not much of a dad," I say as I make a decent shot. "He's a little too into work, I don't even know how he keeps Maya and Ari. I did tell you about the year I was over for Christmas and the cops accused him of experimenting on us?"

"No," she replies as Brigid gives the signal to retrieve the arrows. On the way over to the target, Nudge slips and gets mud all over the shirt she 'borrowed' from me. It was a light colored shirt. It's not any more.

I sigh at the mud stains that'll probably never come out and continue. "They thought since he's a big scientist and maybe a little crazy, he'd experiment on his kids. I mean, Ari's somewhat volatile and Maya's a little too likable but that doesn't mean he has anything to do with it."

"Hmm…" Nudge sighs, trying to make sense of this. Even though we're best friends, she doesn't know much about Jeb's side of the family. She tends to do more of the talking in our conversations.

Then she decides to turn the conversation into something even more awkward. That we've already been over. "So you're one hundred percent sure you don't like Fang?"

She cuts me off before I can even start to speak. "'Cause you might like him a little, just a little."

"If I say yes will you tell me if you like Iggy?" I ask, just to add to the awkwardness. Oh, the perks of being friends with Nudge.

"Yes!" she shouts and some other kids glance in our direction. "Oh, wait, I meant the liking Fang part," she tries to clarify. "'Cause Iggy told me he think Fang likes you. Isn't that cool? I think it's really awesome! Maybe-"

"Answer my question!" I cut her off, gaining the two of us even more weird looks from the other kids.

"Uh…" she starts, then motions for me to come closer. She whispers, "I can't tell you now, Max. Iggy and Fang are listening. Just don't look-"

I glance over at the two boys who have their eyes trained on us. There's this instance when we're just staring at one another. Then Iggy waves over dramatically and we all go back to what we were doing.

"-now" Nudge finishes a little too late.

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

Well, turns out I'm not entirely hopeless at archery. I managed to hit the bullseye once without one of Nudge's random outbursts. When we arrive back at the recreation area, we find a pair of blonde not so happy campers.

"You guys," Angel says, her usually curly hair matted down with water, "kitchen duty is awful. Gazzy got me all wet!"

"I need to make life interesting," the Gasman states. "Nobody else seems to be trying."

"Whatever," Angel says, brushing off her brother's comment. "How was archery?"

"Great but Nudge and Max were yelling the whole time," Iggy replies. He glances over at Nudge who is currently itching a mosquito bite on her elbow.

"We weren't yelling," I say, not really wanting to have this conversation. "We were having an _interesting_ discussion." I glance at Gazzy who looks pleased that we were helping in his quest for an interesting world.

"Well," says the Gasman, "what do you want to do for the free time?"

"Yeah," Nudge adds, eying a puddle, "it's all wet."

"You don't seem to have any problem with being muddy considering the shirt you stole from me is coated in it," I say, trying not to sound too rude. Not that I care about my clothes being ruined, I just don't like Nudge stealing from me. Over the past few days she's been more of a little sister than a best friend to me.

"I don't care about the water or the mud," Nudge replies. "I just thought the counselors wouldn't like it if we played soccer in the mud."

"Well," Angel says, "maybe we could play cards in the pavilion."

"You have playing cards?" I ask. Most places would ban them to prevent gambling, right?

"And where's this pavilion?" Nudge adds. "I haven't seen any pavilions here but then again, I haven't seen a lot of things. Like the Arc de Triomphe. And Las Vegas. Does the word Vegas make you think of the color green too? Or a zucchini? Aren't words that start with Z so incredible?"

"Yes, we have playing cards and the pavilion is somewhere between the mess hall and the cabins," Iggy answers for Angel, ignoring most of Nudge's rant. I don't even know how he did it, I forgot the original question. All I can think of are zombies.

"Well," I say, pulling myself out of Max's-Nudge-induced-zombie-filled-dreamland, "let us go play cards in the pavilion."

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

So, thankfully, we don't end up playing poker. Instead, we play slap jack which kind of turns into beat the winner senseless. Gazzy wins a huge stack of cards only to be repeatedly slapped across the face by his so-called best friend.

"Ow, stop!" the younger boy screams. "It's not my fault I'm younger and faster!"

"You aren't faster," Iggy screams back. "You cheated!"

"Can you even cheat in slap jack?" Fang asks.

"Oh," Nudge says, "that's what we're playing." She was losing over and over again.

I look around the somewhat broken down pavilion. How can the camp be so rundown? And why aren't there any new campers other than Nudge and myself?

I'm pulled out of my thoughts by Fang cleaning the cards up. Apparently, fourteen slap fights are thirteen too many. Too bad, Nudge just got the hang of the game.

"So," the Gasman says, his cheek bright red from where Iggy slapped him, "what about your chlorine lake?"

"It's not chlorine," I immediately defend, though the more I think about it, the more realistic it sounds.

"Yes, it's gotta be," the nine-year-old replies as the voices of some counselors that I don't remember the names of approach the pavilion.

"What could we tell them to get them to the lake without making them suspicious?" the first person asks. "You know the campers, how do we do it?"

"I don't think you can," the other counselor says. "Some of these kids are awfully wary."

"Why don't you just say we're going swimming and we have to hike to get there?" asks a voice that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I see a flash of red hair and realize it's actually the Red Haired Wonder. Why is that girl involved? She struck me as the stupid type.

"So, on the last day, yes?" the fist counselor asks. I don't know the response because they spot us sitting at the tables and trail off.

"How much of that did you hear?" the second counselor asks, his face looking a bit pale if you ask me.

Now here's the place where you either try to intimidate them by saying 'all of it' or play dumb and learn more later. I guess all of us realized that.

"All of it," Nudge, Iggy and Gazzy say simultaneously, trying to sound superior.

"Nothing," Fang, Angel and I answer at the same instant.

That's about the point things get interesting.

Immediately, Gaz, Ig and Nudge try to correct their approach by saying, "I mean, nothing!" Then, without missing a beat, Gazzy grabs his sister's hand and they run away down the muddy path.

We stare after them and when they're almost out of earshot, Angel yells back, "Kitchen duty, gotta go!" She and her brother keep running, their pale blonde hair flying behind them.

Then Iggy, Nudge, Fang and I are stuck with the Red Haired Wonder and the psycho counselors. Great.

**A/N: How did you like this chapter? It wasn't one of my personal favorites, more of a filler.**

**So… thanks for reading! **


	10. They're British!

**A/N: Oops, this is the third chapter featuring day four. Well, you get day five, too. And I'll say now, this is only a filler chapter with no progress in the mystery that focuses on Niggy more than anything. I hope you enjoy anyway. I've put in some humor and the next chapter will be better.  
**

**On another note, I've been working on multiple songfics and another story recently. I probably won't post them until this story is nearly or completely done. This is why I've been taking a while to update, distractions.**

"So you did hear something," the Red Haired Wonder says as menacingly as a tiny redhead can manage.

"Yes," I reply, deciding to have some fun with this. "I heard the birds and my friend's voices and the water dripping off the trees. Then the ginger monster messed it all up."

Nudge glances at me and whispers, "Who's the ginger monster?"

Iggy nudges her and whispers back, "The ginger, duh."

"Whatever," says our very own ginger monster. Hmm… this is actually kind of fun to say. The ginger monster.

"So, while we're on this topic," I reply, "what are you discussing?"

"What's ginger mean again?" Nudge asks Iggy.

"Don't you watch Harry Potter movies?" Fang asks.

"Or Doctor Who?" Iggy adds with a smile that resembles the Doctor in my opinion. These people are really hard to work with.

"It's none of your business," Lissa replies. She turns up her nose and stalks off. I make a face at her back.

"Yeah, so?" Nudge asks, still on the ginger topic. "What do those have in common? But I do like them both. Sometimes when it's quiet, I think I can hear the Tardis and I swear I met a wizard last May."

"Uh…" Fang says, shocked speechless. Not that he sounds any different then he usually does.

"They're British!" Iggy exclaims in what I think is a faux British accent. Before I can hear any more, I walk away.

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

Nudge P.O.V.

For some reason for which I can't explain, Iggy and I walk hand in hand down some typical dirt road at camp. There are giant holes in the pathway and the trees around us are purple but I don't question it.

The air is calm and cool. I don't hear anyone which is pretty out of the ordinary. Iggy looks so at ease but I'm not sure why.

That is, until he leans down to kiss me. Wait, _what_?

And why am I so short all of a sudden? I know Iggy's tall for his age but I am, too!

That's about the time I fall into one of those holes.

I scream then try to stifle it because I realize:

a) I'm not falling to my doom

b) I'll wake up Max and Angel

and

c) Iggy isn't going to kiss me

Talk about a messed up dream. Sadly, Max and Angel _were_ woken up by my involuntary scream. And it did a good job of it, too.

A totally alert Max jumps, hitting her head on the bottom of Angel's bed. She curses under her breath while Angel slides off her bed, holding Celeste like a weapon of some kind.

Max then rolls off her bed onto the ground where Angel helps her up. I watch the whole scene, wishing I could go back to sleep. If only I could have dreamt of being a backup dancer in the California Gurls music video like last night.

Then Max sees that I'm awake and asks, "Was that you?"

"Yeah," I reply. "I, uh, was dreaming about being in a music video and then, uh, I fell in a hole but really my leg just fell off the bed. Do you ever have music video dreams?"

Max just kind of slumps over and slinks into the bathroom muttering something about wanting a normal morning. I hear the shower turn on so I'm guessing that she's taking a shower. Or drowning herself. Probably the first thing.

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

At breakfast, I sit across the table from Iggy but can barely look him in the eye. It's like the time I dreamt an assassin killed my parents and I didn't even cry in the dream. I felt so guilty the next day and talking to them was weird.

The conversations go in one ear and out the other. I try to figure out if the dream could have meant anything other than I like Iggy but so far, nothing. Why, oh why did I have to have that stupid dream?

"Nudge!" someone calls. I look up to see Iggy snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Pass the bacon."

"Oh," I say so elegantly. I grab the blue plate covered in bacon and hand it across the table to him.

"Are you ok?" he asks, looking genuinely worried. "You haven't said anything, kind of out of character for you."

"I just said something, happy?" I snap then bury myself in thought again. Oh, great, now he must hate me.

After that, I tune back into the world around me. I realize that Max's hair that is still damp from her shower is in two french braids. I must've done that because she's no count with hair. Angel wears a cute little t-shirt with a picture of a dog on it. I vaguely remember her telling me that the dog was her pet, Total.

Tuning in further, I realize that everybody's staring at me. Probably because I'm not talking like I usually do. TIme to blow them away.

"Oh, my gosh, why are you guys staring at me? Is it something I did? Ooh, that's a line from an Avril Lavigne song! Don't you just love music? And music videos? Except for when they totally miss what the song's about. Then I don't like it at all. Is it the fifth day of camp already? I just love it here but I guess we're halfway there, so to speak. Hump day! I wish I had an Australian accent. I should've used one here instead of my normal accent."

I then sit back and watch their expressions change from concerned to frightened. The powers of Nudge return. I'm awesome!

Then the counselors announce our next activities. Our group is going to another survival activity today, this one centered around building fires. Iggy's specialty.

-OH, GOODNESS, THE THIRD LINE BREAK-

We walk along the same pathway we did for the shelter building activity and I realize that it's the path from my dream. Thankfully, there aren't any holes and all the trees I can see are green. Still, it's weird to see it in real life, almost as weird as talking to Iggy.

Once we get to the giant fire pit thingy, Brigid her ever changing entourage of counselors that I don't remember the names of explain all the important things to remember when building a fire. I don't quite retain the information, though.

We then spilt into smaller groups to build our own little fire. Fang and I team up 'cuz Max has her friend J.J. to work with and I only know Fang. Iggy chose to work alone since he's the master pyromaniac. And the counselors didn't want him to accidentally set another kid on fire.

Once Fang and I have our whatever-that-thing-is-called-that-you-build-then- set-on-fire set up in the fire pit, we try to start the fire with matches. You'd never believe it but it's actually kinda difficult. I mean, the fact that Fang and I keep accidentally putting the matches out doesn't help either. Ok, fine, it was more me than him.

I glance over at Max and J.J.'s fire which isn't too much better. But still better. I look at the other campers and notice that that red haired girl that Max called the ginger monster isn't here. What was her name again? Hmm… whatever, I'll figure it out later.

Iggy is already starting to fan the campfire which is very, very good. And he isn't even using matches. Fire comes to him as easily as talking comes to me.

Then I realize I've been talking to Fang the whole time and, like, 90% of what I've said is, as Max would say, just plain crap. I quickly try to shut off my ranting mouth. What can I say, I hate silence and it's not like Fang is a talker.

Finally, Fang gets the fire started. "Here's our fire," he says, "even though it's more like just mine because you _didn't help_."

"Sorry," I reply. "I got distracted."

I glance back down at the fire only to see that it's gone out. Great. I groan in frustration and we both try to restart the fire. The best part? The matches fell in a mud puddle leftover from yesterday.

The counselors walk around to judge our fires. I personally believe they should've been watching us the whole time. I mean, fire plus kids from ages twelve to fourteen equals kids from ages twelve to fourteen on fire. Like Katniss and Peeta. Except dead.

When they reach our fire, they look very disappointed. It's a little more than a muddy spot on the ground. They move on to Max and J.J.'s fire which seems to be in very good shape. On to Iggy's which is as amazing as anyone could expect.

The counselors walk to the middle of the clearing and announce that Iggy's the winner. Then they help put out the fires that are, you know, actually burning. I start talking again to pass the time and Fang just rolls his eyes.

I walk back with Max who is very happy with the results of her and J.J.'s work. I keep glancing at Fang and Iggy who seem to be discussing my terrible fire building skills.

"Nudge?" Max asks. "Is something wrong? You haven't been focused today and I don't think you've said hardly anything to Iggy."

"Wha?" I reply stupidly.

"What's bothering you?" she asks again. I can't really brush it off, Max isn't the kind of person to let go of anything.

"I had a dream…" I start. She motions to continue and I do. "Uh… it was about… Iggy." I mutter the last part.

Max stifles a laugh and grabs my arm. She brings me to the back of the pack of kids, far enough away from the boys. "You what?" she says laughingly though she obviously heard me.

"Had a dream about Iggy," I say again, feeling stupid.

"Really?" she asks, obviously still very amused.

"Yes," I reply, wishing she'd drop the topic.

"So that's the reason you won't talk to him," she says. "What happened?"

"We were taking a walk and then he tried to kiss me," I say.

"Did he?" Max ask. I think she's just trying to be difficult now. I shake my head and she laughs. "Is that what woke you up?"

"No, I actually did back into a hole in the dream," I answer. Max seems to find this incredibly amusing. Now she can barely keep herself from laughing out loud.

"Stop laughing," I say, "'cause it's not funny. He probably doesn't like me back. I'm a year and a half younger than him."

"A year and a half younger than who?" says an all too familiar voice. I turn around slowly to find that Iggy and Fang have been stalking us. Crap.

Max bursts out laughing and I feel like passing out. Thankfully, that's the time we reach the recreation area. I make a beeline for the mess hall, using Gazzy and Angel being there as an excuse.

**A/N: Ta-Da! And another chapter done! I think I'm skipping the rest of this day because it wasn't really very important. So… thanks for reading!  
**

**Now, here's something that I was just wondering about, which pairings do you prefer in this fandom? Obviously you like Fax and Niggy to some extent, as those are the pairings in this story, but which other pairings do you like? Which ones do you hate?  
**


	11. H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks

**A/N: Sorry, sorry! I've taken forever, this chapter's not really that long or interesting and I feel terrible about it. I've had writer's block on this story and have been working on some other story concepts lately and Summer Camp sorta slipped my mind. I hope you can forgive me, I'll try to avoid doing this with future stories. Anyway, read on if you're tired of my rant...**

Max P.O.V.

Another morning, another rude awakening. This morning, I wake up from my arm itching like crazy. I see that mosquito bites dot my whole right arm. As I wake up more, I realize that I haven't been wearing bug spray for the last couple of days because of the rain. And there's also the fact that I usually sleep with both of my arms under the covers and last night my right arm was over them.

I drag myself into the bathroom, scratching my whole arm. I search through the big basket of makeup and such that Nudge brought but has barley touched since we've been here. Finally, I pull out the anti-itch stuff and put it on all of the bug bites. It takes a while for it to work so I just have to pace and try not to scratch my arm anymore.

Once the itching subsides, I go back into the room and throw some clothes on. Why waste a perfectly good early waking? I throw on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and leave the cabin. Once outside, I spray myself down with bug spray. I cough at the stench but, hey, it's better than getting eaten alive, right?

I just wander around aimlessly for a while, waiting for the day to start. Walking past the pavilion, I notice a weird looking shadow, also known as Fang. He's barely visible, the only reason I saw him is because I'm used to him and I didn't have any preoccupation. Why on earth is he up so early? I doubt he has the same conditions in the morning as I do.

"Fang?" I ask and he moves, becoming easier to see. "Why the heck are you up so early? What time is it, even?"

He glances down at the black watch on his wrist and answers, "Six forty two. Why are you up?"

"I had a bunch of mosquito bites that woke me up," I answer. "Now answer my question; why are you up so early?!"

"I wake up early because Gaz talks and occasionally farts in his sleep and Ig snores like a congested buffalo," he replies. "I get out as soon as possible."

"Ok, I get the whole snoring problem," I say, "but are Gazzy's farts so bad?"

"No, they're worse than bad," he replies, dead serious.

I laugh and say, "So, while we're up early, why don't we do some more detective work on the turquoise lake?"

"Are you still on that?" he asks. I can't tell anything from his expression, it looks like it usually does.

"Yes, I am," I reply. "And you know why?"

"Why?" he asks, possibly just humoring me.

"It's a stupid conspiracy and I want to get to the bottom of it!" I reply.

He shakes his head and produces his laptop from under a table. "You got so lucky this time," he says.

I grin and we begin our daily research. "Search for the camp," I say and he complies.

We scroll through pages and pages on the camp's website and don't find much. That is, until a certain name catches my eye. "Wait," I tell him, "scroll up a bit."

He does and I point out the name in question; Isabelle Martin. "Who's that?" he asks.

"She and her husband work with my father sometimes," I answer. "They're scientists, specializing in genetics research."

"And this is important how?" he asks.

"It's just weird because I know them," I reply. "What page is this on?"

"Top donators," Fang answers. He points it out on the screen. The words "Top Donators" are written a bit obviously in the top right corner.

"OK," I say, trying to make sense of this new information. "How much did they donate?"

Fang checks and his jaw drops. "A. Whole. Freaking. Lot."

"Then how is this camp so run-down and creepy?" I ask. "And why aren't there many counselors or campers?"

"I don't know," he replies. "Whatever it is, we'd better drop my laptop off at my cabin and head to the mess hall. It's eight fifty something and I'm starved."

I sigh. "I'm not really looking forward to talking to Nudge today," I tell him as we walk back to the cabins.

"Why?" he asks as we pass a couple of campers.

"You know when you and Iggy were stalking us yesterday?" I ask.

"Just so you know, that was Ig's idea," he says quickly.

"Don't worry, I wasn't mad about it," I reply. "Nudge is, though. She was telling me about a crush she has and I wasn't being very nice about it. She stopped talking to me after that. I'm just afraid she'll be really grumpy today."

"I doubt it," he replies just as we reach his cabin. I stifle a laugh as I realize it's the same pale pink color as ours is. He shoots me an odd look and I just ignore it.

Fang walks in and I wait in the doorway. Upon glancing in I find that, thankfully, Iggy and Gazzy are fully dressed and arguing about something. Iggy sits on one of the top bunks, his strawberry blonde hair brushing the low ceiling. Gazzy stands below him making kissy faces at him. I decide to leave before someone gets hurt.

-PRETEND THIS IS A LEGIT LINE BREAK-

Upon arriving at the mess hall, I find Nudge, Angel and, somehow, Fang already at the table. I sit next to Nudge who doesn't protest. Actually, she gives a little smile which makes me feel a lot better. I glance across the table into Fang's dark eyes. I almost get lost in them but quickly pull myself out when I realize there's something I was going to ask him.

"How in Hades did you get here faster than me?" I ask.

He smirks. "Shortcut."

"Hades?" Angel asks, looking confused but curious.

"He-" Nudge starts but I cut her off with a look that I hope says 'don't cuss to the little kid.' "H-e-double-hockey-sticks to the Greek people," she says, looking at me for approval.

Then Gazzy and Iggy burst through the doors just as the meal begins and all h-e-double-hockey-sticks breaks loose.

The Gasman sits beside Nudge, forcing Iggy to sit across from me and all the way across the table from him. Then, turning to his sister he says, "Something terrible has happened!"

Angel's eyes grow wide with concern. "What is it?"

"Iggy likes a girl!" her brother shouts, gaining some glances from other kids.

With that said, Nudge grabs my hand and drags me over to the salad bar. I open my mouth to speak but she cuts me off. "Bad, bad, bad! He likes someone?!"

"Maybe it's not so bad," I reply. Nudge's face only shows horror.

"Or maybe he's in love with Fang!" she yells back, throwing a crouton at my face.

I catch the crouton in my mouth and reply, "Gaz said he liked a girl. I'm pretty sure Fang's not a girl."

"Maybe it's Angel!" she replies.

"And maybe it's not someone who's half his age," I reply, heading back to the table.

Once we return to the table, I see two overturned drinks and an angry Iggy. Gazzy looks relatively unharmed and when he sees us he says, "Someone's pissy this morning." He jabs his thumb in Iggy's direction.

"Language," I remind him, just force of habit. One summer, Ella spent the whole break yelling at me every time I even remotely cussed so now every time I hear a curse word, I yell at _them_.

Nudge grabs Angel's arm this time and starts to drag her over to the salad bar. "But-" the little blonde girl starts to protest but Nudge cuts her off.

"You need croutons," she says. Angel shakes her head but follows without protest.

I tune out the boys and focus my ears on Nudge and Angel's conversation.

"You're close to Iggy, right?" Nudge asks.

"Actually," Angel says, "you're standing closer to him."

"I mean you're close friends?" Nudge asks. Angel nods slowly.

"Good," Nudge says. "Now you can be my spy and find out who Iggy likes."

"Why do you care?" Angel asks. Nudge shrugs and leads her back to the table, a giant plate of croutons in hand.

"Was that your meaningless diversion?" Iggy asks. Angel shakes her head, her blonde curls bouncing up and down.

"I actually do like croutons," she says, popping a bunch into her mouth.

"Wait," says Nudge, "back up. Did you just make a reference to a Demi Lovato song?"

Iggy gives an expression that I can't really figure out then shrugs it off.

The meal is finished in a slightly awkward silence. After everyone is finished, the counselors announce that the kids in my age group get to learn about compasses. Angel and Gazzy's age group probably gets something cool to do but I don't quite catch what it is because I'm too mad about getting a boring activity.

We walk out of the mess hall and form our usual little groups. Brigid walks over to us, that big grin on her face, then leads us to an open field to learn all about the wonders of compasses.

**A/N: Ok? I've come up with an idea for the next chapter (featuring more of Angel because I like her) and will begin working on it right away. Hopefully the story will get back to where it was before because I haven't been too proud of some of my recent chapters. Regardless of all of my rambling, thanks for reading!**

**P.S. I've been a little bit (totally) obsessed with Doctor Who recently so any readers who are Whovians might find some references in future chapters.**


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